Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - Tuesday in the 28th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 1:16-25 and Luke 11:37-41]For what can be known about God is evident to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse; for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened. [Romans]
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2013 ST. TERESA OF AVILA o.c.d., virgin and doctor of the church
Pope Francis has made considerable news recently with his extensive interviews with an Italian journalist who is an avowed atheist! Instead of thundering denunciation, however, Pope Francis has simply put his faith "on the line," as it were, and clearly and warmly proposed a God of love and mercy whose works are observable in the creation we live in! His first encyclical, LUMEN FIDEI, which he "co-authored" with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, one may experience the power and depth of faith while recognizing that faith is always directed at a knowledge of the truth about God and the world and the human person. Thus faith is not merely a subjective "feeling" but an experience of a reality beyond ourselves and the material world. St. Paul is not quite as patient, but he does put the major issue on the table: to believe or not to believe!
Every month, the National Geographic magazine arrives to place before my eyes the wonders of God's creation, both human and non-human. For this reason, I am puzzled by atheism of any kind. I am also puzzled by the statement: "I'm spiritual but not religious!" Both atheism and "spiritual-but-not-religious" seem to me to settle for surface reality and individualism instead of depth and community of love and mercy. Human failures in the name of religion have been terrible, but no less terrible than human failures in the name of secular ideologies. Only a mercy and love that offers something greater than these failures can offer us hope. St. Paul's words in ROMANS may seem raw and harsh at times, but at least they can startle us into giving more than superficial acknowledgment to the importance of faith! AMEN